On March 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that disbands the Department of Education and returns the authority over public education back to the state. The reason the order is endorsed points to the board and its workers’ inability to serve students’ academic progress in core areas such as English, math and science. Yet, just because something is not working does not mean that it should be eliminated. Instead, it should be altered. In the world of programming, many say that if a code is functioning, even if it is not completely going as planned, it is best to leave it alone. In the case of the failure of the public education system, rather than maintaining the status quo, or eliminating the board entirely, the United States government should focus on fixing the headquarters in charge of national education.

The first way to fix the national education system is to increase the public’s awareness on the importance of education. A culture that over-emphasizes academic achievements can create a hostile environment for students, as it encourages comparison, competition and other such unhealthy behaviors. On the other hand, an anti-intellectual atmosphere, where academic success is not celebrated, can similarly hinder personal growth. Certain educational practices, such as issuing easy exams and adopting lenient grading policies, can certainly increase the confidence of students, but also lead to a lessened commitment to learning. It is well known that good letter grades do not guarantee success, and there are many paths to success. However, education also provides students with a wide range of useful skills, such as the ability to set priorities and maintain perseverance and discipline. We have to remember that exams exist to test students’ knowledge rather than to torture them. To enhance this purpose, it is important to intensify the rigour and challenge of our curricula. In addition, the state government and a national educational board should ensure that students are reaching the appropriate level of knowledge on the subjects taught. This can be done by establishing standards and providing assistance when students are unable to meet that standard.

The second way to fix national education is by increasing funding for both schools and students. During my third year of high school, when students were distributed AP U.S. history textbooks, many of them were missing the cover page or entire chapters. In the case where students are taking advanced math classes, they have to purchase graphing calculators that cost over $100 on average, even for older models, without financial assistance. Such a lack of funding drives students who cannot afford the product to only take easy math courses that don’t require these additional expenses. There are many instances where students have to start working from an early age to support their families. In such cases, these students are focused on merely securing passing grades in order to focus on their jobs, and this can be difficult to achieve whilst doing honors or AP classes, which often require large time commitments. By having a national institution establish rigid rules on funding and budget distribution to increase financial support, students can use newer equipment and materials and have teachers who are more educated and passionate about their work. This will allow for students to spend more time pursuing academic success.

Having a national educational institution can also assist with creating equity. Based on where the student lives, they receive a specific quality of public education. Students with affluent backgrounds are more likely to succeed, given their increased access to resources and assistance. They have the privilege of focusing solely on their education, in addition to having the advantage of attending private schools and tutoring sessions, enrolling in expensive extracurricular activities, and having support with their college education. On the other hand, students living in poverty, with families unable to support their education, may face objections in regards to college enrollment, may not be able to afford tuition despite being accepted to a prestigious university or may miss out on valuable learning opportunities. Residents of areas where the state government enthusiastically supports students are more likely to have higher quality education. On the other hand, students living in areas with fewer resources dedicated to public education may lead them to increasingly fall behind on their education, which eventually leads to a loss of enthusiasm in learning and poorer quality of instructional materials.

Having a national institution that sets standards on what and how students learn and what support they should receive can allow each student to get the exact quality of education they need. This would leave it up to the students to choose whether they want to actively participate and take advantage of their education or not.

In the end, it would be more effective for Donald Trump to revise the current institution rather than to eliminate it as a whole. State governments have limited power in planning large projects and therefore, having a headquarter that will plan, initiate and evaluate policies is necessary in order to attain quality control in public education.